first project

[nicola griffith]

Sorry I've been away so long.

Jeremy, I've turned off the numbering, which should help with the threading.

I've read everyone's thoughts on the anthology.  For those who have never done this, let me explain a little bit about Building an Anthology.  Rule one: it takes four times as long and costs three times as much (money/energy/patience) than you expect.  Rule two: it's all about who knows you.

So who do you know who also knows you?  I mean, who do you know well enough to a) persuade to donate a story and b) whose work will attract buyers.  Reply to this email with hand on heart and give me those names.  Those are the pool we have to choose from.  (Remember, it's a reprint anthology, to keep costs--monetary and editorial timewise--down.  And we do not--not not not--want to turn this into an open cattle call.  Trust me, it will kill your soul wading through the crap that would result.)

I know a lot of people, especially in f/sf, lots o' people in quiltbag fiction, some crime fiction, a meager handful from mainstream lit.  But I don't want to do all the work.  If my goal with starting all this had been to simply edit a nifty anthology, I could have that well in train by now.  But my goal is to test publishing and publishing outreach.

So here's what I propose: three choices.

1) Everyone throws their names-worth-knowing in the hat.  We see what we've got.  (We see if reprints from these names would have enough pull for an antho and if we could devise a meta-theme: love in hard times, ambition, whatever.)
2) We find a book in pre-publication that we know is worthy but which we also know won't get the attention it deserves, and then--after conversation with willing publisher and author--we co-brand it, we give it a special sticker and we, as Ozymandias, swing into action with web and audio and vidding, with blogging and music and illustration, distribution and marketing, etc.  There would be no money changing hands on this first venture, it would be purely a for-free pilot project, with us learning the ropes, hopefully gaining some goodwill, and the author picking up some sales.
3) Republish something in the public domain.

I think no one much liked the notion of 3) when I first floated it, but I think it's worth reconsidering.

So send in your names.  Let's see if (1) is possible without me having to do all the work and expending all my publishing capital.  Then we'll chat.

Nicola

[barbara sanchez]

Nicola, no fantastic writers out there know me except you and Kelley(and Janine) and a couple of historains and literary critics. The reason I wrote my last post was so the experts in our group would help us with suggestions to get the Ozymandias publishing globe rolling. I'll help in any way I can. --- On Fri, 3/20/09, nicola griffith <gema...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Adam Lowe]

Well i can probably get michael moorcock and jeff vandermeer. Justina
robson lives round the corner from me and may be able to spare
something too. Others i can ask are allen ashley, janrae frank, peter
tennant and eugie foster. They're not all stellar names, but a few run
magazines or websites that review and have some clout on the spec fic
scene. Mike and jeff, of course, are big names and would do.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Regards

Adam Lowe

Features Editor
Bent [http://mag.bent.com]
Editor-in-Chief
Polluto [http://www.polluto.com]
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Dog Horn Publishing [http://www.doghornpublishing.com]

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